God's Provision

Our 2nd week of school went well ~ we are still not up to full throttle, but are easing in. This week we added Tapestry of Grace ~ history, geography, bible, and literature ~ to the math and chores we started the week before. Next week we add writing and science. Yesterday was the first meeting of our TOG Yr. 1 Co-op, and it went really well! We have 13 families in the group, and we meet every Friday from 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM. The kids are divided into 5 age groups ~ Babies/ PreK , K-3rd, 4th-5th, 6th-7th, and 8th -9th. Each group works separately with 2-3 moms, doing crafts, discussing the week's history & literature assignments, playing games, etc. We have a 1 hour lunch and recreation break from 11:30-12:30 so everyone gets to play and talk together during that time. My group ( 8th-9th ) played Jeopardy, using a game board and question cards I had prepared. They played in partners, with each one earning the points for their question. My teaching partner kept track of the score while I read the questions. We used this as a review of the facts from the week's reading in history, geography, and Bible. I think the girls ( there are 6 girls in the group, and 1 boy who was on vacation this week) realized that they need to pay closer attention to the details when they read, because they stumbled on coming up the answers to questions that they knew were fairly easy. So hopefully next week we'll see an improvement in their readiness!
I really view this group as one of God's provisions for our homeschool. It gives me some needed accountability and the kids something to look forward to and prepare for each week.

I have been without a car all week, since Mark's Honda had to go in the shop to have the transmission replaced. ugh I don't know if there is ever a "good" time for a big financial hit like that, but this comes on top of still paying for our family trip this spring, as well as school books and supplies, clothes & shoes ( these things just keep wearing out!), college tuition bills, a son needing wisdom teeth pulled..... Last night Mark compared our financial crunch to the story of Gideon found in the Bible in Judges 6 & 7. Gideon raised an army of 32,000 Israelites to fight the Midianites. But God said that there were too many, and told Gideon to send home all but 300 men. God wanted them to know that their own strength wouldn't bring them victory, but trust in Him alone. So maybe God is showing us that we cannot trust in our own resources, but in His provision?

I love the story of George Mueller, the 19th century English evangelist and orphanage director. He cared for over 100,000 orphans in 5 different homes, but never solicited financial support. Rather, he relied on God to provide through His people, as the Holy Spirit prompted them. One morning, the story goes, there was no food left in the home to feed the orphans. George led morning prayers as usual, thanking the Lord for his wonderful provision for them. A knock on the door came shortly afterwards, from a local baker who told them that he had felt compelled to bake bread for the orphans that morning. Then a milkman came to the door, saying that his cart had broken down in the street in front of the orphanage, and would they take the milk he had, since it would have to be spilled in the street otherwise.